Kitsap County has already seen four road fatalities this year,
adding one today for the death of 20-year-old Jordon Michael
Jimenez.

No single cause jumps out of the four accidents combined; but I
am going to post the four circumstances below so you can see for
yourself. A special thanks goes out to Marsha Masters, president of
the local chapter of MADD, for
the list.

The 81-year-old once heard a superior court judge say that he
had no idea what the cost per year for incarceration was in
Washington state, despite that judge being in charge of sentencing
recently convicted individuals for long stays in the state’s
prisons.

Allen believes the judge should announce the cost of the prison
stay during the sentencing.

His rationale: that if everyone knew the costs, “they might
consider alternatives,” he told me. Interestingly enough, the
legislature this year is considering a
massive overhaul of the Department of Corrections.

Allen’s research on the top is impressive. At his Web Site,
therighttoknow.org, you can
find out the annual cost per inmate — usually around $32,000 — of
any prison in the state. Check it out if you have a moment.

Could we be nearing the abolishment of America’s use of the
death penalty?

That, of course, is a hotly debated question.

Capital punishment in the United States is certainly on the
decline. A recent
Associated Press story by Robert Tanner reported that the
“number of death sentences handed out in the United States dropped
in 2006 to the lowest level since capital punishment was reinstated
30 years ago, reflecting what some experts say is a growing fear
that the criminal justice system will make a tragic and
irreversible mistake.”

Any way you look at it, State of Washington vs. Kimberly
Forder is a tragic case.

Forder, 44, a Seabeck resident, has been charged with homicide
by abuse in the death of her 8-year-old adopted son, Christopher
Forder, in 2002. She’s also been charged with manslaughter.

The details, penned by Kitsap County Sheriff’s detectives in the
probable cause statement for Forder’s arrest, are gruesome and
difficult to read. They were outlined in a
story by one of my colleagues,
Derek Sheppard, when Forder was arrested.